Dennis Tupicoff

Born in Ipswich, Australia in 1951. Graduating from Queensland University, Dennis later completed the Swinburne Film and TV School animation course in 1977. After working as writer/director/producer of his own films as well as commercial and sponsored work, he was appointed Lecturer in Animation at the VCA School of Television (1992–4). Since then he has continued making independent films as writer, director, producer, and (often) designer/animator. These have been both fictional and documentary, animated and live-action, comedy and drama – and sometimes inventive combinations of various categories.

Dennis’ work has been shown at film festivals around the world, and he has won numerous awards. His 2007 film Chainsaw has won many Grands Prix in animation festivals such as Ottawa, Animadrid, Anifest etc as well as in competition with live-action films at Oberhausen, Huesca, Mecal (Barcelona) etc. His films are often shown in retrospectives, and are discussed in Judith Kriger's book “Animated Realism” (2012). Dennis was also featured in Chris Robinson’s book as one of the “Unsung Heroes of Animation”. He has spoken at many international conferences, and has taught, presented his work and run workshops at many universities and film schools around the world.

Since 2000, Dennis and Fiona Cochrane have worked together on various projects as Jungle Pictures Pty Ltd.